Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #84, "from a treetop"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

First I love to thank you all for your kind words according the "trouble" at my work. Yesterday I have had a wonderful, very spiritual, conversation with my head of unit. It was really a beautiful conversation and the problems which were the reason for my "conflict" have been solved. Really it's great to open up in a conversation and meet each other in the middle to come closer to each other. It was really an experience which had to be I think.

Ok ... back to our Tan Renga Challenge. We are on the trail with Basho as you all know and the Tan Renga of today starts with a beautiful haiku composed by Basho. Again a haiku which isn't well known, but it's a beauty. This haiku was for sure the starting verse or "hokku" for a Renga session in which Basho was part of. He is in his early thirties, already a well known Renga master, and his haiku are becoming better and better ... and more beautiful. Ok ... enough trumpeting .... you all know how much I adore Basho and his haiku. Here is our "hokku" for this new Tan Renga Challenge:

from a treetop
emptiness dropped down
in a cicada shell

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

Well .... I think I have said nothing to much about this haiku .... a real beauty, maybe one of his best haiku he ever wrote, but that's just my humble opinion, but I am of course prejudiced (smiles).

Credits: Cicada shell

In this haiku I read Zen ... and the scene is Zen I think. Basho as always is on the trail and has eye for everything and everyone around him. He is really part of nature and is one with it. He has eye for the little things and is in complete awe as he sees the empty shell of a cicada lying under a tree. This shell is empty, but once was full of life ... Is this shell really empty? I would ask myself and as I give this a thought than I say ... "no this shell isn't empty, in this empty shell is still the cicada present ..."

The goal of this Tan Renga Challenge is to make the Tan Renga complete by writing the second (two lined) stanza with approximately 7 syllables (or sounds, onji) per line by associating on the images in the first stanza. Of course I had to try it myself, but it wasn't easy.

from a treetop
emptiness dropped down
in a cicada shell                   (Basho)

the soothing sound of spring rain
makes the silence stronger                     (Chèvrefeuille)

A nice completion I think. Can you explore how I came to this second stanza?

This Tan Renga Challenge is open for your submissions today at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Friday May 15th at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem Time Glass #5 Cicadas

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It is tie for our 5th time challenging feature "Time Glass" in which the goal is to write a haiku (classical or non-classical) within 12 hours. The only thing you get from me is a photo, painting or another image and a prompt. Both have to be used for your haiku.

Here is the photo for this episode of "Time Glass":

And here is the prompt:

CICADAS

Let the photo and the prompt inspire you to catch a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water based on both. You have to submit your inspired haiku within 12 hours. Have a good time, full of inspiration and cherish that short moment, that surprise which comes to you by looking at the photo and the prompt and become one it.

This Time Glass starts NOW and will remain open until October 7th at 7.00 AM (CET). Just 12 hours to respond !!